"Sadly, I am not qualified to appraise an elite magical beast. That will be done by a higher appraise." Wadsworth said with an embarrassed look on his face.
'So, they sent a low-level appraiser to me, is it because I am an E rank adventurer and not worth anyone's time?' Blake thought. "How long will it take for the appraiser to get here?" Blake asked in an annoyed tone.
"The Chief appraiser is usually a busy man; it will take some time before he is will be able to attend to you..." Susan said apologetically.
'I can't stay here any longer, if I leave now, I might be able to make it to my room.' Blake thought as the fatigue was now getting to him.
"Can I leave them here, so that I can collect the gold tomorrow?" Blake asked.
Wadsworth said as he reassured Blake that his spoils were in great care and he wouldn't get cheated.
"I will be back tomorrow." Blake made a slight bow and quickly left the adventurer's association building.
'Kids nowadays are too impatient…' Wadsworth shook his head as Blake left in a hurry.
…
Blake boarded a carriage and returned to the school and went straight administration building for a mandatory clearance before he could enter the castle.
'He made it back alive, now he would think twice before he heads out again.' The clerk thought as he saw the battered Blake. "You are back so soon." The clerk said with a sneer.
"Yeah, I had a rough day..." Blake replied not minding the clerk's sneer because all that was on his mind was catching some z's.
…
"Wadsworth this better be worth my time or you have to give a good explanation for interrupting my… my research." Langford stuttered at the last past of his sentence when he came into the room and saw so many carcasses, but the one that caught his attention was the knox that took the most space.
'The knox has arrived?!' His eyes shined brightly at the thought of getting his hands on the appraiser's fee "Which rank C adventurer did such a nice job in harvesting the beast core?" Langford asked while caressing the knox's fur.
"It was an E rank that killed the knox and also harvested its beast core, sir." Susan replied.
'Do they think I have all day!' Langford wanted to rebuke but after seeing how serious they were he couldn't help but ask. "Are you sure?" After seeing them nod in confirmation, it took some time for him to recover from the shock.
The reason he had been expecting the knox, was that it was a C rank mission commissioned to the association just two days ago, but its arriving this early came as a shock to him.
Normally, before a beast like the knox is hunted down, the adventurer would have to plan and track the beast and this could take days in order to avoid surprise attacks, but this was something else.
Langford quickly got his cool and began doing his job. He started by inspecting it for both external and internal injuries.
He examined the hide to check for sword slashes that may ruin its quality, only to find out there were not even up to up to 5. 'How can this be the work of an E rank?' Langford was intrigued by what he was seeing but still went ahead to check the corpse for internal injuries.
He cast the beast tamer spell, overhaul, which would help him have a great view of the inner workings of a creature's body.
He first checked if there was blood which could be an ideal medium for the growth of bacteria, only to see it was well-drained. He checked for the beast core and found out that it was properly harvested without damages.
'My God! No wonder there were no injuries.' Langford was shocked when he used the beast tamer spell- overhaul to check the knox's right leg, only to see a deep cut that ran into its tibia bone.
After seeing the cut on the leg and heart, Langford began piecing together all the information he had gathered and formed the image of how Blake had defeated the knox.
"But how can the equipment of an E rank adventurer be that good?" Langford thought aloud. This was not the first time he had handled the corpsed of a knox before, he knew that its hide was one of the sturdiest among the elite rank magical beasts and that nothing below a high-quality blade wielded by at least a high rated D rank adventurer would be able to penetrate it.
"Have this reported to the association master and when this E rank adventurer comes in for the gold notify me" Langford said to Susan as he left the room and returned to his research.
…
After his 'short' interaction with the clerk, Blake had returned to his room and had a hot bath.
Immediately his head came in contact with his bed he dozed off nothing knowing his actions had caused a commotion in the adventurer's world and the adventurer name Zero was slowly becoming famous.
…
The next day.
Blake was so exhausted by the near-death experience, that he had slept all through the morning.
"Can you believe I had a dream where I was almost ambushed by a knox, but I ended up killing it?" Blake said to the system while yawning.
[Did you meet an annoying clerk and a young blonde receptionist in your dream?] The system sneered.
"How did you… Oh." Blake said in realization.
"That means I still have to collect the gold." Blake said as his stomach rumbled.
Since it was way past time for breakfast, Blake took out food from his dimensional space before heading over to the adventurers association.
"Good day Mr. Zero." The blonde receptionist, Susan said with a gleeful smile when she saw Blake.
"Here is the value of the appraised items." She handed him a parchment containing the value of all the spoils.
"150 gold coins for each morg!" Blake blurted out.
He was given 60 gold coins by prince Bryon and from the way the carriage driver acted he knew it was a huge amount, but seeing more than twice the amount just for a single magic beast shocked him.
"Both appraiser Langford and appraiser Wadsworth commented on how clean and unharmed the hides were..." Susan informed him when he saw his surprised expression.
'Thank you Sensei.' Blake made a mind bow to the system because it was the one that displayed the area he was meant to strike so as to get the maximum value when it was sold.
Blake was feeling ecstatic at the amount of money he had until he saw the value of the knox that almost made his eyeballs pop out.
'970 gold coins!' The amount was sp shocking that If not for his pride he would have screamed 'I'm filthy rich!' in the hall full of people.
[If you were so interested in the money, you should have also put in the beast cores they are worth a lot, you know?.] The system's remark made him calm down a bit.
[I must confess, the adventurers association's network is really large, for it to be able to sell all those in such a short time or maybe the demand for them is really high.] The system said in a pondering tone.
"Mr. Zero, after completing the C rank knox commission, you gained 4000 contribution points increasing your rank to D." Susan said while handing him a new badge with the D rank on it.
'What commission?' Blake was confused by the receptionist's words, but couldn't ask.
[According to your memories there was actually a commission to slay a knox that had killed a lot of travelers that followed that route.] The system displayed the memory of when he was at the billboard.
"For a rank E adventurer to move up to rank D, he/she must accumulate 1500 contribution points and you got 4000 points, leaving you with 4000/50000 points for the next rank. For more information, here is the manual." She said with an embarrassed look.
'Wasn't she meant to give me this yesterday?' Blake collected the manual. [From the way she was checking you out yesterday, I knew she was bound to forget something.]
'She was checking me out?! Grrrr!' Blake gave Susan a flirtatious smile which left her blushing.
The system couldn't help but 'face-palm' [Focus!]